by Edwin Bromley

Created on: August 13, 2010

The old adage that prescribes keeping your head when all about you are losing theirs is priceless, and nowhere is it more demonstrably an idea come of its time than on the roads of a modern city.    There are all kinds of crazies out there, and they’ve turned our roads into a tarmac jungle.     So is there a failsafe survival strategy when you know that every one hundred thousand drivers will have at least a trace element of each category of folks who really shouldn’t be in control of a motor vehicle at all?  Yes there is – try to be like your favourite teddy.    In matters of demeanour, the most practised of Buddhist monks will barely approximate in his endeavour to match your cutest friend’s penchant for oozing serenity.    Look at teddy every day.   He models indifference to the affairs of the world and all the opinions thereof.    Teddy makes no judgement, nor does he fret or strain about anything that goes on around him.    If teddy could drive, he would be the perfect driver every time he hit the road.

Before you leave home, spare a moment to sit with teddy, take a deep breath and promise yourself that today, you are going to be the driver that teddy would be.     Before you turn left out of your driveway, remember that, just like your fluffy friend indoors, you’ve got all the time in the world, so wait for the car that is thirty yards away instead of sneaking in front of the oncoming vehicle that is much closer, the driver might turn out to be one who you are relieved to have in front of you rather than sitting on your rear bumper breathing impatience.

Let’s go back to those categories of motorized threats to world peace.   The most frightening un-teddylike citizens among us are those affected by drugs and alcohol, but there are others too.    There people on our roads at any given time who are simply not very happy, maybe this speaks for all of us at one time or another; they fall out with their nearest and dearest at home, their football team loses again, or an unexpected bill arrives in the post, and Mr Grouch is at war with the world all day.     Some people are impossible to live with simply because they drink too much coffee.    The sources of angst are endless, the disgruntled drivers are innumerable, and they don’t

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